


Inviolated Fate

by vogue91



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Out of Character, Unlikely Couples
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-14 01:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12996618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vogue91/pseuds/vogue91
Summary: I had but a few more moments. I saw a green flash of light, breaking the darkness in an almost amenable way. And in that split second, her face invaded my mind...





	Inviolated Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Ok. This was written something like ten years ago, and I'm pretty sure someone dared me to write with this pairing, because I can't see any other reason why I should've done this.  
> MASSIVE OOC. Even though Diggory lacks so much of personality that I'm not really sure OOC applies to him.  
> And I wrote "crooked smile".  
> And I killed his poor grandparents, so sorry folks.  
> English is not my native language, blah blah blah. That's the last of my issues with this story.

_I didn’t know how I ended up there. I just knew it was the end. It wasn’t a clear perception, more of a presentiment._

_My sight darkened without me closing my eyes. Black was surrounding me, embracing me in his dark omens of death. The black of the cloaks, the black of those gravestones, into the pale shadow of a moon that was quickly fading._

_I had but a few more moments. I saw a green flash of light, breaking the darkness in an almost amenable way. And in that split second, her face invaded my mind..._

He was getting ready for the Yule Ball. He snorted in front of the mirror, trying to adjust his clothes.

He didn’t actually want to attend the ball. He’d grown tired of that life, tired of the Tournament, tired of the shallowness surrounding him. And Cho wasn’t helping at all. He was sure the girl liked him, but he couldn’t say whether she liked more him or rather _being with_ him. There were times when it seemed that, while they were together, she looked around, like she wanted to check that all eyes were on them.

Cedric liked her as well, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he would’ve stood this. In that moment more than ever, he felt the need of being with a different person, someone stronger, capable of sustaining him, of pointing out the many mistakes he had done.

When he was finally ready, he went unwillingly toward the Great Hall. Cho was there, waiting for him, beautiful as usual. He liked her dress, original like she knew how to be. He smiled to her, managing to hide the confusion he felt about her.

They opened the dances, but Cedric felt nothing like partying.

 

~

 

It had been hours. He barely noticed the time passing. He had walked Cho to her dormitory a few minutes before, but he didn’t want to go to bed yet. Too many shadows were following him, and the last thing he wanted was to feed them with the flame of his solitude.

He knew what he wanted to do. And even though the moment hardly seemed the right one, he went toward the entrance, making sure no one could see him, and he slipped outside.

Cedric breathed in deeply, relishing the air made pure by the cold. He felt free from any oppression now, free from the past, the present, the future, like he was floating through time.

Lazily, he went toward the Forbidden Forest, the only place in Hogwarts that didn’t make him feel artificial.

He walked until he reached a place not far from the boundary of the thick trees, home to creatures he had learnt to respect very long ago.

Thestrals.

In his life, he had never seen an uglier beast. But still, in their ungraceful look, they enclosed a deeper meaning, incomprehensible to the world, and that he felt he could grasp.

They were pariahs, avoided to the point of becoming invisible to those who hadn’t seen before something much more horrifying. Death.

He started to caress them, trying to empty his mind, when he heard a noise of steps behind him that made him freeze. Quickly, he drew his wand, turning with a feline jerk. He sighed when he saw Hermione Granger, scared by the sight of the boy with his wand drawn.

“Oh. It’s you.” he said. She rose and eyebrow.

“And who did you think it was? A Death Eater in the flesh?” she answered, bitter. Cedric closed his eyes.

“These days... everything’s possible.”

They stayed quiet for a few minutes, and the boy took advantage of it to gaze at the Gryffindor. The forest was dark, but the pale light emanating from her wand made him see the tears running down her face.

When Hermione noticed he was looking she lowered her eyes, annoyed.

“Something’s wrong?” he asked, more tender than before. The girl shook her head.

“Nothing terrible, don’t worry.” she answered, flat. “What about you? What exactly are you doing here?” Cedric smiled.

“I could ask you the same question.” he pointed out, but she didn’t say anything, waiting for an answer. “I needed to think. And I came here to see the Thestrals. I find it’s pretty relaxing.” while he talked he started caressing one, and Hermione opened her eyes wide.

“There are Thestrals here in the Forbidden Forest?” she asked, hissing. Cedric smiled.

“Oh, yeah. From time to time they risk it and they come closer to Hogwarts, but not many notice it.” he explained. Hermione hesitated, but her curiosity got the best of her.

“So you can... see them?” she saw the Hufflepuff frown and she bit her tongue.

“Theoretically I don’t even remember, but I saw my grandparents die.”

Hermione got closer, serious.

“I’m so sorry.” she said, but Cedric shrugged.

“It’s ok, I guess. It’s not like I remember them or something.” he said, pretending he didn’t care. He tried a quick change of subject. “So, I told you what I’m doing here. It’s only fair you reciprocate.”

Hermione gave him half a smile.

“Incredibly boring problems with a friend of mine. I don’t think you’d care to know the details.”

“Weasley or Potter?” he asked, knowing the three of them were always together. She chuckled.

“Ron.” she said, and in pronouncing his name she made a face. Cedric got hit by that fact.

Not because of her admission, but for what he could read on her face. Rage, indignation, and that expression in mentioning Weasley... he shook his head. It was none of his business.

“Do you feel like talking about it?” he asked her anyway, but she just shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter. I just need to work off some tension.” she smiled again, more openly this time. She grew closer, staring at a spot where she thought the Thestral was.

Cedric was surprised. The majority of people, once they’d come to terms with their existence, tended to ignore them. He’d tried more than once to convince Cho to follow him to the forest, but with iron logic the girl had always told him that it made no sense for him to bring her to watch something she couldn’t see. And up until now, Cedric thought she was right.

Hermione Granger instead was there, intent, watching into the air with her mind wondering elsewhere.

“Do you... do you think I can touch it?” she asked, feeling a tad silly for that question. Cedric patted the Thestral next to him and he pushed it closer to the girl. Then he went behind her, and he took her hand. He thought he felt her shiver, but he wasn’t all too sure. Slowly, he moved his hand with hers until he reached the animal, who was patiently waiting. Hermione jumped a little for the surprise, but after she gained some confidence she started caressing it with more conviction.

“I didn’t expect it to be so... well, rough.” she declared, and the boy burst out into laughter.

“You had expectations about how a Thestral’s skin was supposed to feel?” he mocked her. She sighed.

“You know what I mean.” she replied, without taking in any consideration his words.

The minutes passed, and it felt like an eternity to Cedric, before the Gryffindor decided she had had enough. She turned toward him, a nice light on her face.

“Thank you. I really needed something different tonight.” she said, grateful. Cedric gestured, as to say that he hadn’t done a thing.

And he hadn’t. It was all so fluid, so natural... it was as during the past years they had done nothing different than spend their nights in the forest, not like they barely knew each other.

They went back toward the castle. In order to break the silence, Cedric took the conversation back to the reason that had brought Hermione out in the forest, that night.

“So... Weasley.” he started, with a crooked smile. “He your boyfriend?” she blushed violently.

“No.” she said, much too shyly. “I told you, he’s a friend.” she specified, but that did nothing on the malicious smile on Cedric’s face.

“I understand. Why did you get so mad at him then?” Hermione raised an eyebrow.

“Being mad at a boy doesn’t automatically makes him my boyfriend.” was her answer, and then she snorted. “Friends make mistakes too.” she pointed out.

Cedric nodded, like he understood perfectly what she meant.

“And you...” she went on. “You said you needed to think. Something specific?” she tried to divert the attention.

“Cho... the Tournament... let’s say I’ve got a lot on my mind these days.” he said, evasively. Hermione didn’t seem convinced.

“Really? Because looking at you, you don’t seem to have so many issues.” Cedric looked at her, angry.

“I know. Nobody ever thinks that. Because Cedric Diggory is the school champion, he takes part in the Triwizard Tournament, he’s got a girlfriend so he has to be happy. Or am I wrong?” he asked, making her blush.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that...” he shut her up.

“Don’t worry. I hear that more than you think that I should be the happiest guy on the face of the Earth.” they kept walking, but he had closed himself up.

He would’ve given anything for someone to truly see him, for someone to look over the shell and find that he had more to offer than met the eye.

They arrived into the Great Hall, pretending they were always there. Everybody was starting to feel tired and to head back towards their dormitories, so they did the same.

“It’ll be better for me to go now. The others... they’ll be wondering where I am.” Hermione said, and Cedric but nodded. “It was nice being with you tonight. Thank you.” she added, and she ran away toward the Gryffindor Tower, leaving him no time to reply.

Cedric stayed still for a few seconds, then a smile crossed his face. It was nice for him too, being with Hermione.

He went toward his dormitory, never stopping to think.

People who had known him for a few years had a pretty precise picture of him: nice, a bit of a star, but substantially shallow. He clenched his teeth thinking about how the hell he had managed to give such a wrong impression of himself.

But she... Cedric found himself thinking Hermione could be different from anybody else. Different from all his friends, different from Cho...

He didn’t know her well, she always seemed to care about school and nothing more, but tonight she surprised him. It was likely that he was misled too by an impression based only on what he could see.

Hermione Granger...

It was worth thinking about it.

 

~

 

The next few weeks, he felt ridiculous.

He started looking for Hermione more and more often, pretending to meet her by chance, to go to the library without an apparent motive.

There was something in her that attracted him, in a subtle way. It wasn’t a physical thing, it was more like he wasn’t able to fully understand her. Like there was something in her that she didn’t show, a deepness that the people around her failed to see, and that Cedric hadn’t missed.

He was right in the library, he had been watching her for a while, when she raised her eyes and saw him. She smiled, and gestured him.

Calling on all his courage, Cedric went to her.

“Hi, Cedric.” she whispered. “What are you doing here?” he pretended to be hurt.

“Oh, come on, what do you think? I don’t strike you like the kind of guy to be in a library?” he asked. Hermione raised an eyebrow, and waited for him to tell her something more convincing. He sighed. “Alright, fine. I was looking for you.” he admitted.

“Now you found me.” she waited for an explanation. Cedric hesitated.

“Hermione... I think that... you see, the other night shouldn’t be just something that happened. I think it was something, well, different.” he blabbered. The girl looked at him with her eyes wide open, then she stood up, collecting her books and gesturing for him to follow her. Once they were out, she turned to face him, upset.

“I don’t know what to say, Cedric. The other night was nice, it’s true, but I don’t think it meant anything.” she said, slowly, trying not to mislead him. The boy blushed.

“Why?” he asked only that. She sighed, bringing her hands to her temples.

“For starters, there’s Cho.” she pointed out, and the Hufflepuff frowned.

“I like Cho, but she’s not everything to me. To be honest, I don’t even know whether she’s right for me or not. We’re too different.” Hermione shook her head.

“We barely know each other. How can you ask me to start something when a few weeks ago we didn’t even talk to each other?” she murmured, sad. He took her hand, and gladly saw that she didn’t pull back.

“I know, Hermione. But I think that even though we’re close to strangers, we have something binding us.” he took a deep breath. “Think about that night. Think about darkness as your only companion, think about all the shallowness you witness everyday. You’ve become an obsession to me, because I feel that you’re not like all the others. And it may seem unoriginal to you, but I don’t want to be original. What I want is to tell you that I see a road I can walk with you alone. And if you reject me...” he paused. “You’re condemning me to mediocrity.”

“You’re telling me I’m useful to you? That you need me to be a better person? I’m sorry, Cedric, but I can’t believe that. You say you saw something in me... and do you actually believe I didn’t see a thing? I saw a popular kid, who’s got a girlfriend, friends, alone in the Forbidden Forest with Thestrals as his only company Do you honestly believe it meant nothing to me?” he kept staring at her, captured by her words. “Don’t you think it passed through my mind that the person I saw is far from anyone I’ve been with until now?” she pulled back her hand. “We were there because when we are with other people we feel _wrong_ , Cedric. Because we feel the emptiness around us, we feel that there’s always something that’s bound to saty untold, because we got no one to say it to.” and here he interrupted her.

“I know you’d understand me. And I you. That we could voice those thoughts, for once.” she smiled, but it was a sad smile.

“I know. You’d understand, maybe we wouldn’t even need words to understand each other.” she sighed. “Cedric... it takes being a little bit alike to comprehend each other, but it takes being a little bit different to love each other.” she said, turning away from him, because she couldn’t sustain the weight of him gaze.

“Hemione...” was the only thing he was able to say, his voice broken, hit, hurt from the girl’s words.

“I’m sorry. Yours is a utopia. A beautiful utopia, which I’d love to live. But that will stay what it is.” she concluded, still without watching him.

“What does it mean?” he still refused to surrender to this verdict. He wanted to get closer, to held her, to beg her. Knowing that this girl wasn’t supposed to mean anything to him. But he couldn’t make that voice inside of him shut up, the one that was telling him that if she were to leave now, he would’ve been denied a future different to the one he was destined to.

“It means that what happened is bound to remain a coloured scratch of unreal in between everyday greyness, Cedric.” she finally turned, showing him her face, a single beautiful tear running through it. She watched him for just a moment more before leaving, and he stayed there, still, like he couldn’t move at all.

What was supposed to be a new beginning, had had a horrifying turn toward the end.

 

_I had but a few more moments. I saw a green flash of light, breaking the darkness in an almost amenable way. And in that split second, her face invaded my mind..._

_Dead. I was dead._

_It wasn’t cold, it wasn’t hot, there was no colour, there was no pain._

_Just an endless emptiness._

_I thought almost with cheerfulness to the future I wanted to share with Hermione, while now this emptiness was my only fate. The only thing I deserved, because I had taken the right decisions at the wrong time, because I didn’t fight for them, but had endured passively what my existence decided to give to me._

_I closed my eyes, surrounding myself in this inglorious passing, worthy heir to a cowardly life._

_I was happy to have spent at least one night hoping before that very same hope was ripped away from me, from Hermione before and from death now._

_One only regret. Not knowing how it would’ve been._

_“We’re different now. You’re alive and I’m dead. I can love you as much as I want, now.” I though, before slipping into an eternal sleep._

**[It rains on the beautiful fable that beguiled me yesterday, that beguiles you today,**

**oh Hermione]** (G. D’annunzio, La Pioggia nel Pineto)


End file.
